Adult Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist

Due to current post holder gaining NIHR funding for 5 years we have an opportunity to join our adult acute SLT service at Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital. Grow your skills in leading the communication, swallowing and airway service to people with complex heart and lung conditions. We have significantly expanded the SLT service over the last few years and in addition to our core clinical work, we are focused on driving service and quality improvements that demonstrate impact and improve functional outcomes. We are 'research aware', translating and aligning our practice with the best currently available evidence, and on a journey to becoming 'research active'., The post holder will clinically and professionally lead the SLT service, supporting and supervising the teams across both sites. They will have expert skills in the multidisciplinary management of adults with acute communication and swallowing problems related to complex cardiothoracic surgery, respiratory disease, and heart and lung transplantation, including patients in the intensive care unit with tracheostomy and ventilator dependence. They will provide highly specialist assessment, differential diagnosis, treatment and management of speech, voice, language, cognitive-communication, airway and swallowing disorders, as well as education and advice to patients and those caring for them. They will be involved in discharge planning to ensure a seamless transfer of care to other hospital, outpatient and community services. The post holder will be responsible for the governance, safety and quality of dysphagia care at the sites, including the delivery of responsive VFSS and FEES services.
Alongside clinical work, they will also be an active member of the Senior Leadership Team within Rehab & Therapies contributing to governance, strategy and operational decision-making. The ability to drive and deliver service improvement initiatives through audit, service evaluation, research and quality improvement is essential

The post is embedded within the multi-professional therapy team which is made up of a dynamic group of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, psychologists and therapy assistants. You will work collaboratively with your colleagues to deliver a responsive, patient-centred, high-quality and effective service to inpatients. Continuous professional development will be provided through line management/121s, appraisal, inservice training and access to study leave funding for external learning opportunities.